We’ve been huge fans of Reuben Wu since the beginning years of the blog so we wanted to share this weeks SF gallery show with the readers. Info is above, i’m very jealous since i’ll be on the East Coast.

Somewhere between 1970s concept album art, expeditionary imagery, and Surrealist painting is where Reuben Wu’s photographs steadfastly sit. His are pictures made in the real world, however, through collapsing time and merging processes, the real is transformed into the surreal, evoking a response simultaneously familiar and foreign. The photographs amplify the strangeness of place and speak to Wu’s individual experience within it.

The remnants of his processes –chemicals dragged arduously across the sensitized paper surface, infrared film shifting the world’s natural hues, light leaking into the camera and hitting the film plane —leave traces of their varied journeys embedded in the final image. Wu’s physical journey is a similar one; he treks with cameras in tow to places that, for most of us, are left to those who fall into the category of “explorer”. Considering the lengths he travels to make his photographs, the unpredictability of Wu’s materials is not exactly what we’d deem trustworthy. The resultant images delineate from the expected photographic trajectory and provide a mode of looking that is equally experiential and aesthetically unique.

Reuben Wu (b. 1975) is a photographer and musician currently living in Chicago, Illinois. He received his MSc in 1998 from the University of Liverpool.

Luigi Ghirri (1943 – 1992) was an Italian photographer and writer who pioneered colour photography in the vein of conceptual and contemporary art. Although he was recognized and exhibited extensively while alive, full appreciation for his work has occurred posthumously. You can read a more extensive bio and view more of his images here and here.

I find his work appealing primarily because of the nostalgic colours of Kodachrome film, but also for his compositions. He definitely had a certain wit about him, as well as an ability to see and capture moments that others might otherwise miss. As one article states, “…His pictures are not acts of mimesis or replication but ways of exploring reality. They are investigations of the unknown and examine the spiritual and the immaterial world. Photography for Ghirri was a form of poetry and a means of communication; it was a mental habitat where boundaries and territories intersect and fluctuate…”

Behold the aerialscapes of young German photographer, Jakob Wagner. I love the consistency of Wagner’s editing style and color pallets — he does a fantastic job of enhancing textures and shadow details while still keeping the photographs looking clean and natural. It goes without saying, but the locations he’s captured are also truly outstanding.

I highly recommend you check out his portfolio for more of this visual candy.

When I first scrolled through these photos from Jean de Pomereu I thought they hadn’t loaded yet until I looked closer.

The series ‘Sans Nom’ (Nameless) was taken in the Pridz Bay Region of East Antarctica between 1 am and 4 am, when the air was completely still, and a thin mist descended upon a group of icebergs locked into the winter sea ice. The white landscape blends with its foggy surroundings so that you can almost not tell where the iceberg starts and the sky ends.

You may remember seeing the first Lytro light field camera here on the blog back in 2011. If its unconventional box-like shape wasn’t enough to catch your eye, the astounding technology that enabled photographers to adjust the focal point of the image after it had already been captured surely would have. Check out an example below, you can click to change the focal point and scroll to zoom in and out. There are more samples on Lytro’s Gallery page.

Well, now Lytro is back with the next evolution of the light field camera: the Lytro Illum. Physically, it appears much more in-line with traditional point-and-shoot cameras than its radical predecessor, with an angled display screen that gives the profile of the camera big points on both character factor and, I’d imagine, ergonomics. I’ve also read in some hands-on reviews that it feels remarkably light, weighing in at less than two pounds…yes, that lens that looks like a cumbersome beast apparently weights only half a pound.

As pretty as the Illum is on the outside, it isn’t until you take a look at what’s inside that you can get a sense for how revolutionary this camera really is. The Illum uses a patented micro-lens array that captures data about color, light direction and intensity, storing this data for later use. This is the key difference between light field cameras and other cameras, which generally don’t give you much control over the photo once it’s been taken. A special Lytro button enables a helpful UI overlay that outlines the contours of objects in the shot, giving a sense of depth and a preview of how the image’s focus will be able to be adjusted by its viewers.

Perhaps the biggest kicker of all is the price tag. Looking at a piece of technology as revolutionary as this, you might instantly assume that it’s going to run tens of thousands of dollars. Wrong. It’s being listed at around $1,599 USD, which isn’t exactly cheap, but in the photography field it actually is very affordable. In his original post, Jon finished it off by opening the table for ideas on how this technology could be applied to great effect. One can’t help but think of all the possibilities when you look at technology like this: how would you use the Lytro Illum differently than you would your usual camera? Or, which of your favorite photographers would you like to see use a camera like this?

A few images from my travels through Chile this past December. Featured here are locations in the Atacama Desert, including Valle de la Luna, Salar de Atacama and Mano del Desierto. There are also two images from Santiago, which happen to be the final shots I captured with my D600 before having it taken from me at knifepoint a couple days later in Valparaiso. Fortunately, I had a back-up camera and was able to capture the trip north into the Atacama.